Meta announced the takedown of three covert influence operations linked to China, Iran, and Romania, aimed at manipulating political narratives across multiple regions through fake accounts on Facebook, Instagram, and other platforms, according to the The Record.
According to a new report, the Chinese network used AI-generated personas to push pro-Beijing messaging in Myanmar, Taiwan, and Japan, including propaganda favoring Myanmars military junta and content critical of U.S.-aligned governments. An Iranian operation, tied to the network Storm-2035, focused on Azerbaijan and Turkey, leveraging fake female journalist profiles to amplify anti-U.S. and anti-Israel sentiment, often through spam and trending hashtags. Meanwhile, a Romanian-origin campaign used false identities to push political content and redirect users to external websites, but failed to gain traction. Although Meta acted before any network achieved widespread influence, the company said the campaigns reflect increasing use of generative AI and cross-platform strategies to disguise origins and manipulate discourse. Meta emphasized the ongoing challenge of identifying and dismantling such deceptive online activities.
According to a new report, the Chinese network used AI-generated personas to push pro-Beijing messaging in Myanmar, Taiwan, and Japan, including propaganda favoring Myanmars military junta and content critical of U.S.-aligned governments. An Iranian operation, tied to the network Storm-2035, focused on Azerbaijan and Turkey, leveraging fake female journalist profiles to amplify anti-U.S. and anti-Israel sentiment, often through spam and trending hashtags. Meanwhile, a Romanian-origin campaign used false identities to push political content and redirect users to external websites, but failed to gain traction. Although Meta acted before any network achieved widespread influence, the company said the campaigns reflect increasing use of generative AI and cross-platform strategies to disguise origins and manipulate discourse. Meta emphasized the ongoing challenge of identifying and dismantling such deceptive online activities.
